Appleby (UK Parliament constituency) explained

Appleby
Parliament:	uk
Year:	1885
Abolished:	1918
Type:	county
Elects Howmany:	1
Region:	England
Towns:	Appleby-in-Westmorland
Year2:	1295
Abolished2:	1832
Type2:	borough
Elects Howmany2:	2
Borough:	Appleby-in-Westmorland

Appleby was a parliamentary constituency in the county of Westmorland in England. It existed for two separate periods: from 1295 to 1832, and from 1885 to 1918.

Appleby was enfranchised as parliamentary borough in 1295, and abolished by the Great Reform Act 1832. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) using the bloc vote system. It was represented in the House of Commons of England until 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. Its best-known MP was William Pitt the Younger who became prime minister in 1783 at the age of 24.

For the 1885 general election the Redistribution of Seats Act created a county constituency of the same name, which returned a single MP elected by the first-past-the-post system. The county constituency was abolished at the 1918 general election.

History

The borough (1295–1832)

The parliamentary borough of Appleby consisted of the town of Appleby, the county town of Westmorland, and was consistently represented in the House of Commons from the Model Parliament of 1295 until the Reform Act.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]}

The right to vote rested with the occupiers of around a hundred burgage tenements. By the 18th century, the majority of the burgages were owned by the Lowther and Tufton families, which enabled them to put in reliable tenants at election time and ensure their complete control of who was elected. The seats were frequently kept for members of those families, but Appleby's other representatives included William Pitt the younger, who was MP for Appleby when he became prime minister in 1783 (although he stood down at the following general election when he was instead elected for Cambridge University).

A later member for Appleby was Viscount Howick, subsequently (as Earl Grey) the Prime Minister whose administration passed the Great Reform Act of 1832; but Grey's history as a former MP for the town did not save it from losing both its members under the Act. Appleby was regarded as a classic example of a pocket borough, completely in the control of its owners who were also the major local landowners, and with a population of only 1,233 at the 1831 census unlikely to be freed from their influence even by widening the franchise. Nevertheless, as the only county town to be disfranchised, Appleby was one of the more controversial cases in the debates on the reform bill, the opposition making unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill so as to save at least one of its MPs.

After abolition the borough was absorbed into the Westmorland county constituency.

The county constituency (1885–1918)

The Appleby constituency created for the 1885 election was, in full, "The Appleby or Northern Division of Westmorland", and was sometimes referred to as Westmorland North. It consisted of the whole of the northern half of the county, including the towns of Ambleside, Grasmere and Kirkby Stephen. It was abolished at the 1918 general election, the whole county henceforth being united in a single Westmorland constituency.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1295–1660

Parliament	First member	Second member
1382	William Soulby
1385	William Soulby
1386	Robert Overdo I	John Overdo
1388 (Feb)	William Soulby	Adam Crosby
1388 (Sep)
1390 (Jan)
1390 (Nov)
1391	William Soulby	John Sowerby
1393
1394
1395	Robert Gare	William Savage
1397 (Jan)	John Helton	John Sowerby
1397 (Sep)	Christopher Curwen	Thomas Chamberlain
1399	Thomas Warcop	William Crackenthorpe I
1401
1402	Robert Gare	Robert Overdo II
1404 (Jan)
1404 (Oct)
1406	John Ninezergh	William Crackenthorpe II
1407	John Sagher	John Pray
1410
1411	John Helton	John Sowerby
1413 (Feb)
1413 (May)	Robert Sandford	Thomas Stockdale
1414 (Apr)
1414 (Nov)	Robert Crackenthorpe	John Birkrig
1415	Roland Thornburgh	John Birkrig
1416 (Mar)	Richard Bristowe	Thomas Ma[nningham]
1416 (Oct)
1417	Thomas Stockdale	John Birkrig
1419	Richard Wharton	Thomas Pety
1420	William Lowther	Nicholas Stanshawe
1421 (May)	William Scalby	Nicholas Stanshawe
1421 (Dec)	John Booth	Nicholas Stanshawe1436-1427 Thomas Wharton
1510–1523	No names known
1529	Sir Richard Tempest	Sir Thomas Wharton
1536	?
1539	?
1542	Cuthbert Horsley	Thomas Jolye
1545	Thomas Jolye	Robert Wheatley
1547	Thomas Jolye, died and replaced Jan 1552 by George Clifford	Robert Wheatley
1553 (Mar)	?
1553 (Oct)	George Clifford	James Bankes
1554 (Apr)	John Eltoftes	William Danby
1554 (Nov)	John Eltoftes	William Danby
1555	?
1558	John Eltoftes	Nicholas Purslow
1559 (Jan)	John Eltoftes	Christopher Monckton
1562/3	Christopher Monckton	Robert Atkinson
1571	John Layton	Richard Wroth
1572 (Apr)	George Frevile	Robert Bowes
1584 (Nov)	George Ireland	Henry Macwilliam
1586	James Ryther	Robert Constable
1588	Laurence Lister	Thomas Musgrave Robert Warcop Anthony Felton Election declared void, 11 Feb 1589
1589	Ralph Bowes	Thomas Posthumous Hoby
1593		Cuthbert Reynolds
1597 (Sep)	James Colbrand	John Lyly
1601 (Oct)	John Morice	Thomas Caesar
1604	John Morice	Sir William Bowyer
1614	Sir George Savile, junior	Sir Henry Wotton
1621
1624		Thomas Hughes
1625	Sir John Hotham sat for Beverley – not replaced	Thomas Hughes
1626	Sir William Slingsby	William Ashton
1628	William Ashton	Richard Lowther
1629–1640	No Parliaments convened
1640 (Apr)	Richard Boyle	Richard Lowther
1640 (Nov)	Sir John Brooke (Royalist) – disabled March 1643	Richard Boyle (Royalist) ennobled, September 1642
1645	Richard Salway	Henry Ireton
1648	Richard Salway	Henry Ireton died November 1651
1653	Appleby unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
1654	Appleby unrepresented in the First Parliament of the Protectorate
1656	Appleby unrepresented in the Second Parliament of the Protectorate
1659	Adam Baynes	Nathaniel Redding

MPs 1660–1832

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1660
		1661
		1668		Tory
		1679
		January 1681
		February 1681
		1685
		January 1689
		July 1689
		1690
		1694
		1695
		1697
		1698
		1701
		1702
		1705
		1708
		1710
		1713
		1722		Tory
		1723 by-election ^[13]				Whig
		1727 by-election				Ind. Whig
		1730 by-election ^[14]		Whig
		1741	George Dodington ^[15]	Whig
		1742 by-election
		1747
		1754 ^[16]
		1756 by-election
		1761
		1767 by-election ^[17]		Whig
		1773 by-election ^[18]	Fletcher Norton the younger
		1774	George Johnstone	Independent
		1780	William Lowther^[19]	Tory
		1781 by-election	Hon. William Pitt	Whig
		1784
		1790	Hon. Robert Jenkinson^[20]	Tory		Tory
		January 1791 by-election
		May 1791 by-election ^[21]
		1796
		1799 by-election ^[22]	Robert Adair	Whig
		1802	Sir Philip Francis	Whig
		May 1807		Whig		Whig
		July 1807 by-election ^[23]	Nicholas Ridley-Colborne	Whig
		October 1812		Tory		Whig
		December 1812 by-election ^[24]			George Tierney	Whig
		1818		Tory		Whig
		1819 by-election ^[25]	Adolphus Dalrymple	Tory
		March 1820			George Tierney^[26]	Whig
		May 1820 by-election			Thomas Creevey	Whig
		1826		Whig^[27]		Tory^[28]
		May 1832 by-election ^[29]	Charles Henry Foster Barham	Whig^[30]
		1832	Constituency abolished by the Great Reform Act

Notes

MPs 1885–1918

Year		Member	Party
			Conservative
			Conservative
		Richard Rigg	Liberal
			Liberal
			Conservative
			Conservative
	1918	constituency abolished

Election results 1885–1918

Elections in the 1900s

• Figures are those following a recount

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1914/15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Lancelot Sanderson
• Liberal:

Election results before 1832

Elections in the 1830s

• Caused by Tufton's succession to the peerage, becoming 11th Earl of Thanet

Elections in the 18th century

Election results taken from the History of Parliament Trust series.

• Death of Sandford

• Succession of Tufton as 7th Earl of Thanet

• Dodington chose to sit for Bridgwater

References

• Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988) https://books.google.com/books?id=L9GqTX0uoT8C&pg=PR9&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0&sig=UkEf4ZrrR7tKn1fYUF0yU1YkPwc#PPR5,M1
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 – England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1386–1421). 27 March 2019 .
2. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1422–1504). 27 March 2019 . (currently unavailable)
3. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1509–1558). 27 March 2019 .
4. Web site: Appleby . History of Parliament Online (1558–1603). 27 March 2019 .
5. Web site: Appleby . History of Parliament Online (1604–1629). 27 March 2019.
6. Web site: Appleby . History of Parliament Online (1640–1660). 27 March 2019 . (currently unavailable)
7. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1660–1690). 27 March 2019 .
8. Web site: Appleby . History of Parliament Online (1690–1715). 27 March 2019 .
9. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1715–1754). 27 March 2019 .
10. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1754–1790). 27 March 2019 .
11. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1790–1820). 27 March 2019 .
12. Web site: Appleby. History of Parliament Online (1820–1832). 27 March 2019 .
13. The by-election in 1723 was due to the death of Sir Richard Sandford, Bt.
14. The by-election in 1730 was due to Tufton succeeding to the peerage as Earl of Thanet
15. In 1741, Dodington was also elected for Bridgwater, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
16. At the 1754 election, Lee and Honywood defeated Sir John Ramsden and Fletcher Norton, but this election was subsequently declared void and a by-election held in February 1756, at which Norton rather than Lee was elected
17. The 1767 by-election was due to the death of Stanwix, who was drowned while returning from Ireland
18. The 1773 by-election was due to the resignation of Jenkinson
19. In 1780, Lowther was also elected for Carlisle, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby, causing a by-election in 1781
20. Jenkinson was also elected for Rye, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
21. The May 1791 by-election was caused by the resignation of Richard Ford
22. The 1799 by-election was caused by the death of Hon. John Tufton
23. The July 1807 by-election was caused by the resignation of Charles Grey to contest a vacancy in Tavistock
24. The December 1812 by-election was caused by the resignation of John Courtenay
25. The 1819 by-election was caused by the resignation of George Fludyer
26. Tierney was also elected for Knaresborough, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
27. Web site: Escott . Margaret . TUFTON, Hon. Henry (1775-1849). . The History of Parliament . 25 May 2020.
28. Web site: Escott . Margaret . MAITLAND, James, Visct. Maitland (1784-1860). . The History of Parliament . 25 May 2020.
29. The by-election in May 1832 was due to Henry Tufton succeeding to the peerage as Earl of Thanet
30. Web site: Escott, Margaret . Spencer, Howard . FOSTER BARHAM, Charles Henry (1808-1878), of Trecwn, Pemb. and Stockbridge, Hants. . The History of Parliament . 25 May 2020.